Defrag

[EB Farnum]

How often should I defrag my hard drive?
Some people say once a year others have told me once a month.
I have a 160 Gb Hard drive.
Use my computer all day go on the internet, write papers, play games, check
email etc, and it's usually on all the time.

Thanks

 

[R. McCarty]

There is no fixed interval. It depends on the total number of
fragmented files and how many fragments each of those files
are broken into. You can use the XP built-in defragmenter to
Analyze a disk and then view the report.
Personally, I use Raxco's Perfect Disk 7.0 and run a weekly
full system scheduled scan. On partitions where lots of disk
activity (Create/Delete..) occur I might run a defrag manually.
This is usually done on my caching partition where Temp and
work space files are stored.
Perfect Disk does free space consolidation, which overall
reduces future fragmentation.
XP by itself uses Prefetching to automatically place files in a
strategic location on the drive to improve boot time and app
startup times.

 

[Rock]

How often should I defrag my hard drive?
Some people say once a year others have told me once a month.
I have a 160 Gb Hard drive.
Use my computer all day go on the internet, write papers, play games, check
email etc, and it's usually on all the time.

Thanks

Depends on your use. Yours doesn't seem very intensive by the programs
you run. With modern large hard drives unless running certain programs,
the effect of a defrag is hardly noticeable. Choose an interval that
suits you.

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Run defrag and analyze your hard drive (volume).

To analyze a volume
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/defrag_analyze.mspx

Analysis and defragmentation displays and reports
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...proddocs/en-us/sag_graphic_text_disagree.mspx

[[Analyzing after large numbers of files are added
Volumes might become excessively fragmented when users add a large number of
files or folders, so be sure to analyze volumes after this happens.
Generally, volumes on busy file servers should be defragmented more often
than those on single-user workstations.

Defragmenting after installing software or installing Windows
Defragment volumes after installing software or after performing an upgrade
or clean install of Windows. Volumes often become fragmented after
installing software, so running Disk Defragmenter helps to ensure the best
file system performance. ]]
Best practices
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...all/proddocs/en-us/defrag_best_practices.mspx

[[Before defragmenting a volume, delete any unnecessary files, such as
temporary files. You can delete unnecessary files by using Disk Cleanup. For
more information about Disk Cleanup, see Windows XP Help.

Defragment a volume before you add a large number of files to the volume,
such as before you install programs. This ensures that the files occupy
contiguous space and do not become fragmented after you add them.

Defragment a volume after you delete a large number of files from the
volume.

Defragment a volume after you install programs on it. ]]

Tips for Using the Disk Defragmentation Tools
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prkd_tro_ckyh.asp

Why volumes become fragmented
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...all/proddocs/en-us/defrag_why_fragmented.mspx


--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Ken Blake]

In

How often should I defrag my hard drive?
Some people say once a year others have told me once a month.
I have a 160 Gb Hard drive.
Use my computer all day go on the internet, write papers, play
games,
check email etc, and it's usually on all the time.

There's no answer that's right for everyone. It depends on how
you use your computer and it depends on how much you use your
computer.

You should defragment your drive when doing so results in a speed
up. Here's what I recommend. Pick some arbitrary interval--for
example once a month. Defragment on that interval a few times,
and assess whether the computer generally feels faster after
doing so. If the answer is yes, defrag more frequently. If the
answer is no, defrag less frequently.

Repeat a few times, and you'll soon settle into a frequency that
works well for you.

 

[Ken Blake]

In

The more you defrag the faster each takes to run. I'd say at
least
once a month. Defragging page file and master boot record is
more
important than the entire drive defrag.

Defragging the page file is useless and hardly helps at all.
That's because access to the page file is typically random
anyway.

 

[Ken Blake]

In

Not according to Microsoft. Here's a quote from Microsoft's
web site.

"Another advantage of using a pagefile on its own partition is
that
the pagefile will not become fragmented. If the pagefile is on
a
partition with other data, the pagefile might experience
fragmentation as it expands to satisfy the extra virtual
memory
required. A defragmented pagefile leads to faster virtual
memory
access and improves the chances of capturing a dump file
without
significant errors."

Click here for more info.
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=197379

Note that you quoted a web site referring to Windows Server 2003,
Windows 2000, and Windows NT, not to Windows XP. Here's a quote
from another Microsoft source, "The Windows XP Professional
Resource Kit":

"In Windows 2000. the size of the paging file was conservative
and often needed to be increased, which caused the paging file to
become fragmented. Because Windows XP Professional creates a
larger paging file than the default size used in Windows 2000, it
is unlikely that your paging file will ever become fragmented."

 

[Plato]

How often should I defrag my hard drive?

Once/month if you're a geek or anytime you remember if you're not a geek
is OK. Be sure to delete temp internet [cache] files and all temp/tmp
files first tho so you dont waste time defragging useless files.

 

[Plato]

"Another advantage of using a pagefile on its own partition is that the

99% of people dont have a second hard drive or partition for a pagefile.

 

[Montenegro]

Plato.. could you please explain a bit more about the temp.internet cache
files.

You mean the "delete files, delete cookies, etc" in the Internet Explorer
options? or there is a further stuff to clear?

Thanks

Montenegro

 

[Wesley Vogel]

To delete *all* Temporary Internet Files...

1) Start | Run | Type: inetcpl.cpl | OK
Or right click the Internet Explorer icon on your Desktop.
Or: Start | Settings | Control Panel | Internet Options.
Best to do this with all instances of Internet Explorer closed. Especially
if there are a large number of files.
2) On the General Tab, in the middle of the screen, click on Delete Files
3) Check the box Delete all offline content {This cleans >> C:\Documents
and Settings\YourNameHere\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files AND
C:\Documents and Settings\YourNameHere\Local Settings\Temporary Internet
Files\Content.IE5 and \Content.MSO (Created by an MS Office program)
4) Click on OK and wait for the hourglass icon to stop after it deletes the
temporary internet files
5) You can now click on Delete Cookies and click OK to delete cookies that
websites have placed on your hard drive.
-----

If you want, try this: Open IE | Tools | Internet Options | Advanced tab |
scroll down to the bottom | check: Empty Temporary Internet Files folder
when browser is closed | click Apply | OK. Entirely up to you, but if you
want to be rid of this, it is done automatically. Deletes the content of
C:\Documents and Settings\Your Name Here\Local Settings\Temporary Internet
Files but not the Content.IE5 or Content.MSO folders.

Also: Start IE | Tools | Internet Options | General tab | Days to keep
pages in history: 0 | Apply | OK.

----
Also these folders...

%systemroot%\Temp

%tmp%

Paste into Start | Run

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In